-fpic
Generate position-independent code (PIC) suitable for use in a shared library, if supported for the
target machine. Such code accesses all constant addresses through a global offset table (GOT). The
dynamic loader resolves the GOT entries when the program starts (the dynamic loader is not part of
GCC; it is part of the operating system). If the GOT size for the linked executable exceeds a
machine-specific maximum size, you get an error message from the linker indicating that -fpic does
not work; in that case, recompile with -fPIC instead. (These maximums are 8k on the SPARC and 32k on
the m68k and RS/6000. The 386 has no such limit.)
Position-independent code requires special support, and therefore works only on certain machines.
For the 386, GCC supports PIC for System V but not for the Sun 386i. Code generated for the IBM
RS/6000 is always position-independent.
When this flag is set, the macros "__pic__" and "__PIC__" are defined to 1.
|